National Assembly sets date for meeting on Venezuela’s border claim

Last Updated on Friday, 27 October 2023, 16:06 by Denis Chabrol

The 65 parliamentarians were Friday informed that the National Assembly would be meeting in another seven days to consider a motion on Venezuela’s increasingly aggressive claim to Guyana’s Essequibo County.

Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs dispatched a letter to lawmakers informing them that the House would be meeting on November 3,2023 at 10 AM “to consider a motion on the Guyana/Venezuela border issue.”

He said the order paper would be sent to them “shortly.”

Mr Isaacs’ notification followed a meeting on October 24, 2023 between President Irfaan Ali and Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton and a session of the bipartisan House Foreign Relations Committee the following day.

Both Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd and Shadow Foreign Minister Amanza Walton-Desir said that foreign relations committee meeting discussed a parliamentary agenda to address Venezuela’s escalating posture.

President Ali and Opposition Leader have denounced the planned December 3, 2023 referendum that asks Venezuelans to formally approve disregarding the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in settling the territorial controversy and instead demand that the two countries do so bilaterally.

Of all the questions for the referendum that has drawn stinging local and international condemnation is the one that seeks Venezuelans support for declaring Guyana’s county of Essequibo a state of Venezuela and to grant citizenship and identification cards to everyone living there.

Guyana, the Organisation of American States and the Caribbean  Community have deemed that as a move aimed seizing Guyana’s territory in clear violation of international law.  They have all urged Venzuela to abide by the ICJ process to settle the territorial controversy.

Guyana maintains that the 1899 Arbitral Tribunal Award settled the boundary between the two oil-rich South American nations.